Nathanial Hawthorne: The Ministers Black Essay

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Mr. Hooper states that he is no better or worse than the other members of his community, who he believes also harbor secret sins, even though they act as though they do not. The anti-Transcendentalist concept, like Transcendentalism, suggests that society harbors a false surface, but it believes this is due to an innate sinfulness of humankind, not because human beings outside of society are better.

Anti-transcendentalists believed that humans are hypocrites, and removing social constrictions will not heal the sins of humanity. Mr. Hooper, unlike Emerson's joyful sense of solitude in nature also experiences his isolation as a penance. He chooses to punish himself, not to gain a more positive sense of his inner self, but to fully understand and apprehend its sinfulness. Another key concept of Transcendentalism is the idea that a person's inner life is more important than their social, outer life. However, in Mr. Hooper's estimation, there is a clear need for the individual to suffer social consequences, even for a private sin. Of the first sermon that he gives after donning the veil: "The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them" (Hawthorne 874).

Hawthorne's anti-Transcendentalism, like Transcendentalism states that there is a discrepancy between the social and the true self. But that 'true' secret self can be darker and more sinful than the 'bad' social self that Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau were attempting to escape.

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Mr. Hooper also seems to believe in a need for some formal, religious structure of atonement for human beings to be pardoned for their sins. "Transcendentalists called for an independence from organized religion; they saw no need for any intercession in the relationship between God and the individual man. Divinity is self-contained, internalized in all beings" (Brulatour 1999). Mr. Hooper's belief in organized religion, even though he disdains human hypocrisy, is manifest in the fact that he still continues to preach from the pulpit. Because of his belief in the universality of sin, he does not believe that his action -- whatever it may be -- precludes him from the ministry. He never abandons his faith, even though he has chosen to submit himself to a punishment that is not specifically specified in the guidelines and the strict dogma of his Puritanism.

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